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I was thrilled last year as Sustainia was launched during the Rio+20 conference with Gro Harlem Brundtland, Former Prime Minister of Norway, and organizer of the original Rio Earth Summit 20 years ago saying: “Sustainia100 demonstrates that since the first Earth Summit in 1992 solutions and innovations to tackle this challenge have been developed all over the world. We need to make more people aware of these solutions and inspire more to act.

Raising awareness and inspiring more governments, corporates and investors to act are also the cornerstones of WWF Climate Solverm,launched in 2008. The main difference between the initiatives is Climate Solvers’ focus on energy demand and supply solutions, and the call for action to support national champions in key countries . Sustainia looks at other sustainability challenges as well including health, fashion, food, education and resources, and there is only one global list including solutions from all over the world.

After an initial meeting WWF and Sustainia soon realized that there are many exciting synergies to build upon, and we decided to collaborate around raising awareness and inspiration through already commercialized solutions. I have had the honor to be a member of the Advisory Board together with WWF colleagues with expertise in energy supply, sustainable cities and energy access solutions for the poor.

To be considered a Sustainia100 candidate a solution must be more than just a vague idea or blueprint. All 100 solutions must fulfill the following criteria: Readily available; Positive environmental impact; Financially viable; Improve quality of life; and Scalable. Let yourself be inspired by the world’s largest bike sharing program in Hangzhou, gravity powered lighting in Sri Lanka, , solar energy powered water purification in Botswana, the first all-electric zero emissions car ferry in Norway and much more.

WWF Climate Solver was proud to have been part of compiling and advising on some of the inspiring Sustainia 100 cases this year. These one hundred real entrepreneurs and initiatives carry the inspiring message of thousands of solution providers - the innovations the world needs to deploy at scale to achieve sustainability already exist! They exist all over the world whilst commercializing these at scale is the great challenge of our time. We need financial institutions, governments and corporates all over the world to make this large scale deployment of sustainable solutions a reality. As it is now many of these brilliant solutions end up being just another inspiring niche project. We need you to shift investment flows from real sustainability problems to real sustainability solutions. So please sign WWF’s Seize Your Power pledge demanding investors to shift investments from fossil to renewable energy solutions.

And let yourself be inspired by the world’s largest bike sharing program in Hangzhou, gravity powered lighting in Sri Lanka, solar energy powered water purification in Botswana, the first all-electric zero emissions car ferry in Norway and much more. Seize your power and help these solutions grow even bigger in the years to come.

Arnold Schwarzenegger calls Sustainia 100 and Climate Solver enterpreneurs “the true action heroes of sustainability”. How can you support a true sustainability action heroes like John? There are many ways to do it, and you can start by spreading the word: that the solutions for tomorrow are already here – today.